Samsung Galaxy C7 Pro Review: Worth the Big Bucks?

01 May 2017

The mobile industry has ever been on the rise and one of the latest entrants in the mid-tier segment is the Samsung Galaxy C7 Pro. Released just a month prior in India, the super slim phone has managed to capture the attention of many. The phone landed in our office just a few days after the launch and since then we have been testing and examining its every nook to see whether it’s really worth your money.

Launched in India with a price tag of INR 27990, this device is roughly a thousand bucks cheaper than the Galaxy A5 (INR 28990), So, what’s different in this all new C7 Pro? Let’s see whether the Samsung Galaxy C7 Pro holds is worth the big bucks.

Design

The Samsung C7 Pro very much looks like a Samsung phone at the first glance. But what sets it apart is its super slim body. The Galaxy C7 Pro is a super sleek device at just 7 mm and combined with its weight of just 172 grams, it gives a new definition to the term ‘aesthetically appealing’. This 5.7-inch phone with a soft metal unibody feels good in the hands and is the main reason behind the solid grip, with no slippery edge to it. You can say the design is inspired by Apple iPhone 6S Plus if it’s really the case.

The rear metal body curves gently to the sides giving it a smoother finish. Moreover, the rear camera is flush fitted with no bumps. What we have at the rear are the three parallel antenna lines at the top and bottom of the device. Beyond the things which make the Galaxy C7 Pro unique, the usual fittings like the power button and volume rockers are on the sides.

The Hybrid SIM tray is fitted just below the power button. The bottom has the USB Type-C charging port flanked by the 3.5 mm headphone jack on the left and the speaker grills on the right. However, I wished that the speaker grills were on the side of the device akin to the Galaxy A5.

The fingerprint sensor cum home button is a physical button — a typical Samsung design. And similar to the Galaxy A5, the recents and the back button are hardware capacitive buttons.

In a nutshell, the design of the slim Galaxy C7 Pro is impressive and the narrow bezels make one-handed operation an absolute delight. Coupled with the 2.5 D glass, it’s sure to draw its share of praises when you pull it out from your pocket.

Display

The display is the forte of Samsung and well, with the C7 Pro, it has done amazingly well. The 5.7 inch Super AMOLED display with 1080 x 1920 resolution gives a crisp, fluid and vibrant display. Surely, Samsung’s AMOLED display has unparalleled viewing experience and the unwavering display angles are a testament to it.

For a mid-tier phone, the always on display contributes a lot toward the aesthetic appeal of the Samsung C7 Pro. What’s more, the always on display can be customized to suit your needs and can be made to display date, time or the calendar. With it, getting an insight into messages, battery percentage, and the likes has never been so easy.

Furthermore, the sunlight legibility is great and the device never falters even under harsh sunlight.

Performance and Hardware

The Galaxy C7 Pro is powered by a Snapdragon 626 chipset which clocks at 2.2GHz and coupled with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB of storage. The 626 chipset is built on the 14nm process and thus its cortex cores deliver performance very efficiently.

But then, as we had previously said in our first impressions, the choice of hardware is a tad baffling. A phone which has been touted as a match against the OnePlus 3T (Snapdragon 821), the Snapdragon 626 in the C7 Pro doesn’t seem to justify the INR 27990 price tag.

Moving on, the internal storage can be extended up to 256GB via micro SD card. The AnTuTu benchmark clocked a decent value of 66874 which is an average for a phone in this range.

More on the hardware side we have the home button which doubles up as the fingerprint sensor. The sensor has a decent turnaround time and responds well to touch. But here, again, if I were to compare it to the turnaround time of the OnePlus 3T, the Galaxy C7 Pro’s performance is a tad dismal at this point. On an average, it locks me out 2 times out of seven.

And lastly, I did encounter an unusual heating issue on a couple of occasions. First was during a casual browsing session on the Google app with good connectivity to the cellular data. And the other time was during a camera testing experiment.

Software

The Samsung Galaxy C7 Pro still runs on Android Marshmallow and is based on Samsung’s TouchWiz user interface. For a phone which is touted as a competition to the OnePlus 3T, the latest version of the Android Nougat would have been more than apt. But it seems that users of the Galaxy C7 Pro, as well as the other latest entrant in the Samsung Galaxy line like the A5 and A7, will have to wait it out a bit more.

Plus, I found the in-house TouchWiz interface a tad slow. However, I overcame that with the introduction of a third-party launcher app (Nova).

The Galaxy C7 Pro houses a handful of notable features like the Secure folder and the built-in blue light filter.

Though it supports NFC, the ever helpful Samsung Pay is missing from this device as yet. When India is fast moving towards a cashless era, the support for Samsung Pay would have been more beneficial.

Lastly, on the security front, the Galaxy C7 Pro is protected by Samsung’s very own Knox which provides chip-level encryption. What’s more, the security patches are also the latest.

Camera

Moving on, the C7 Pro houses a 16-megapixel camera at the front and rear. Coupled with f/1.9 aperture and dual tone LED flash (rear camera) the Galaxy C7 manages to capture stunning images. The images are crisp, vivid and the color reproduction on the AMOLED screen are just about perfect. The below images taken from the C7 Pro in both indoor lighting and outdoor natural conditions should hold my statement true.

The below images taken from the C7 Pro in both indoor lighting and outdoor natural conditions should hold my statement true.

Moreover, there are a couple of built-in modes in this device. Notable among them is the Food mode, which makes the pictures of stand out and looks delicious (yep, you read that right).

And speaking of low light captures, the Galaxy C7 Pro manages to do a decent job. However, noise does creeps in which tends to dust the sharpness a bit. But then, it’s not much of a deal breaker.

The selfie shooter gives tough competition to the rear camera and manages to churn out beautiful and vivid pictures. In a nutshell, for a mid-tier phone, I am quite happy with both the camera.

Battery

The Samsung Galaxy C7 Pro is powered by a 3300mAh battery and the in-house battery optimization assures of a full day coverage. And true to its words, it took the Galaxy C7 Pro 1 day and 12 hours to come down to 6% on a typical day with a screen-on time comprising 25% of the total. A typical day involving phone calls, net browsing, gaming sessions, and social networking.

In a not so typical day which means continuous video streaming on cellular data, the battery managed to cut down by only 10% in an hour. Impressive, I would say.

Plus the C7 Pro is accompanied by a fast charger which makes charging on the go fast and quick. It takes roughly 1 hour 30 minutes to charge the device to its maximum capacity.

Compared to the OnePlus 3T’s dash charger which fully powers the device in 45 minutes, at least they could have given quick charge.

My Take

If you ask me, I find the Samsung Galaxy C7 Pro to be an apt device with a long battery life, a sleek body, and a great camera. And coupled with the vividness and color calibration of the AMOLED display, it sure makes up a great mid-tier phone. My only gripe is the hardware specs are a bit disappointing for the price which is being projected. On the other hand, if you are a casual user, the hardware specs won’t be that much of an issue.

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Written By

An engineer turned tech writer, Namrata used to write software codes before turning to a career in tech- writing. She is passionate about travelling, food and reading about cool new stuff. Apart from that, she holds a bachelors degree in I.T and hails from Guwahati.